I Am One With The Forks And The Forks Are With Me!

[Bob Blaylock]

Just got my license renewed.

A few oddities and observations…

• This renewal covers only Class V forklifts, and Class VII. It seems very odd that it does not cover Class I or Class IV, which, for the most part, are nearly identical in operation to a Class V. I guess it's because Sunstate is a construction-equipment company, and of the various kinds of forklifts, only Class V and Class VII are commonly used in construction, and so those are the only classes that they handle or support.
• The instructor, and Sunstate's training materials, refer to the Class V as a “Warehouse Forklift”. As I mentioned, Class I, Class IV, and Class V are all nearly identical, but of those three, Class V is the one that you would not likely find being used in a warehouse.
• Class IV and Class V differ only in what kind of wheels/tires they have. A Class IV has solid, smooth tires, meant for use indoors on a smooth warehouse floor. A Class V has pneumatic tires with a treat more suitable for outdoor use, on slightly rougher terrain than a warehouse. Class I is like Class IV, except that it is electric rather than powered by an internal combustion engine.
• Of the forklifts pictured on this license, the second one from the left is a Class V. The other three are telehandlers, classified as Class VII, colloquially known in the trade as “Gradalls”, though Gradall is a trademark owned by one company, that no longer uses that brand on forklifts of any kind. Gradall was once THE dominant brand of that kind of forklift, hence the common use of that name to refer to any forklift of that type, regardless of what brand it actually is. The Gradall brand continues to be used on various sorts of construction machines, but not on anything at all similar to the type of forklift with which that name is so solidly associated.

 

[whitehall]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

 

[evenflow1969]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Oh younger on a farm. I was driving at 13 with farm license. Driving the tractor at 7 or 8.

 

[norwegen]

I'm so fat, I need a license to operate a salad fork.

 

[Erinwltr]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

 

[Erinwltr]

I'm so fat, I need a license to operate a salad fork.

I just spit early morning bourbon on my computer screen!

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I'm so fat, I need a license to operate a salad fork.

But you use spoons to handle soup, right?

I used to use forks to handle soup. My one big job as a forklift operator was in the shipping department of a Campbell Soup factory, where I worked from 2006 to 2013.

Now, I'm a construction electrician, but my skill and experience at operating a forklift continues to be a valuable asset, though no longer the primary point of the job.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

 

[martybegan]

Just got my license renewed.

A few oddities and observations…

• This renewal covers only Class V forklifts, and Class VII. It seems very odd that it does not cover Class I or Class IV, which, for the most part, are nearly identical in operation to a Class V. I guess it's because Sunstate is a construction-equipment company, and of the various kinds of forklifts, only Class V and Class VII are commonly used in construction, and so those are the only classes that they handle or support.
• The instructor, and Sunstate's training materials, refer to the Class V as a “Warehouse Forklift”. As I mentioned, Class I, Class IV, and Class V are all nearly identical, but of those three, Class V is the one that you would not likely find being used in a warehouse.
• Class IV and Class V differ only in what kind of wheels/tires they have. A Class IV has solid, smooth tires, meant for use indoors on a smooth warehouse floor. A Class V has pneumatic tires with a treat more suitable for outdoor use, on slightly rougher terrain than a warehouse. Class I is like Class IV, except that it is electric rather than powered by an internal combustion engine.
• Of the forklifts pictured on this license, the second one from the left is a Class V. The other three are telehandlers, classified as Class VII, colloquially known in the trade as “Gradalls”, though Gradall is a trademark owned by one company, that no longer uses that brand on forklifts of any kind. Gradall was once THE dominant brand of that kind of forklift, hence the common use of that name to refer to any forklift of that type, regardless of what brand it actually is. The Gradall brand continues to be used on various sorts of construction machines, but not on anything at all similar to the type of forklift with which that name is so solidly associated.

View attachment 470133

All of them except the #2 from the left are called "Lulls" by me, I guess another company name.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift.

I've never tried operating one of those, but they look to me like they'd be dangerous and difficult to control. I hope they have a very good deadman/brake system; I can easily imagine the driver falling off and being run over by it.

I also see little point to them. A load that could be handled by one could surely be handled by a more primitive non-powered pallet jack; and any load that can't should be handled, I think, by a more proper forklift. The powered rider pallet jack truly looks to me like a very bad solution to a nonexistent problem.

Most licensing programs are a joke.

I imagine that before forklift operators had to be licensed, it was simply up to any employer to teach any new prospective forklift operator the basics, and provide plenty of guidance and supervision while he learned from experience how to competently operate it. I think the formal training/certification requirement was added because there are some things about operating a forklift that are not obvious from just experience alone, and a need was seen for prospective operators to be specifically trained in these certain non-obvious dangers. Most forklift certification programs really do little to get the operator to a point of truly being competent at it, and it is still a matter of getting plenty of practice and experience to achieve that; and really still on the employer to provide the conditions for that to happen.

I was trained initially on a Class IV, in an unusual way that actually had me with a reasonable degree of experience and competence before I actually got my license, and then went on to run a Class I for seven years at the Campbell Soup factory, gaining a great deal of experience and competence in that general type of forklift. It was nothing at all, on moving on to construction, to come across a Class V, and start using it right away.

The thing that ever throws me, and I hope eventually to get over it, is that I seem to have a strong holdover about how my Class I at Campbell's worked, that is different. Instead of having a lever to switch between forward, neutral, and reverse, it had what Hyster called a “Monotrol” pedal. You pushed the starboard side of the pedal to go forward, and the port side to go in reverse. The accelerator pedal on the Class V that I am using at my current project is too narrow to have distinct sides that way, but every so often, I keep forgetting to move the transmission lever, and I find myself expecting the forklift to somehow discern from how I push the pedal whether I mean to go forward or reverse.

Less often, I am getting cross-habits between the transmission lever on the forklift and the turn signal lever at exactly the same position in my car. One in a great while, I find myself using the turn signal in my car, intending to put the car into gear; and once in a great while, in making a turn to port, I find myself shifting into revere unintentionally, out of habit of signaling the turn as I would in my car.

 

[Erinwltr]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

 

[Erinwltr]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

 

[Manonthestreet]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

Same same........They are worthless.

 

[Erinwltr]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

Same same........They are worthless.

Wrong. What a Dick. Get certified, fucker.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

All of them except the #2 from the left are called "Lulls" by me, I guess another company name.

I happened to come across information about that brand earlier today. It's a now-defunct brand, under which some of these kind of machines used to be made. The brand is currently owned by JLG, which I am pretty sure once owned the Gradall brand, as well. Some time after buying that brand, JLG discontinued it, as it already had a few other brands under which it was making similar equipment. I haven't been able, yet, to find out about who currently owns the Gradall brand, or at what point they stopped making, under that brand, the machines that everyone knows as “Gradalls” even when not of that brand.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

Same same........They are worthless.

Wrong. What a Dick. Get certified, fucker.

Dude been in industry all my life......you are talking out your ass

 

[d0gbreath]

I operated a Skytrack material handler with outboards on a hilly terrain construction site for a while. Shooting a bunk of roofing press board up onto a 3 story apartment building roof (almost straight up) made me wonder just how strong that cab roll cage really was. I never turned it over.

 

[Erinwltr]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

Same same........They are worthless.

Wrong. What a Dick. Get certified, fucker.

Dude been in industry all my life......you are talking out your ass

No I'm not. Lift the fucking pallet up to section C4.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Interesting that a license to operate equipment in a construction or warehouse environment is so complicated but a 16 year old kid can work the same machines on a farm without a problem.

Damn, just keep being the condescinging asshole that you are. Yes, I drove tractors when I was 16 in the sticks. Acres of land everywhere. But a fucking forklift in a God Damned warehouse is different. Go fuck yourself, if you can.

Your stand up pallet jacks are harder to control than a fork lift. Most licensing programs are a joke.

No, they are not. You just said it yourself. Damn Dude.

Your comprehension sucks......just because some training might be good doesnt mean the training out there is

My comprehension is just fine. Fuck off Asshole.

Certification. Get it?

Same same........They are worthless.

Wrong. What a Dick. Get certified, fucker.

Dude been in industry all my life......you are talking out your ass

No I'm not. Lift the fucking pallet up to section C4.

Yeah...so...........it ain't rocket science.